Chenyinke And The New Study Of Textual Criticism

Chenyinke(1890-1969) is a famous historian in modern China. He possesses surpassing talents, estinsive learning and a good memory, furthermore, grasps ten and odds of languages. He learned family learning from childhood, thus laid a solid foundation of national learning; at his youth, he traveled abroad for further study and received the influence of all kinds academic thoughts in the west. His experience and constant efforts later enable him to made special contributions to the combination of Chinese and the western approaches in academic research.In the early 20th century, conflicts appeared between Chinese and the western cultures along with the introduction of western culture, Chinese traditional culture was in danger as some people in the academic circles proposed to 'totally westernize' China. Under these circumstances, Chenyinke , Chenyuan and many others posited on spread Chinese traditional culture . They were fully knowledgeable about the value of Chinese traditional culture and made attempts to combine Chinese traditional academic approaches with the western approaches, thus found a new way for developing traditional culture . They really made great contribution to succeeding and developing Chinese traditional academic approaches , esp. to the study of textual criticism , and eventually formed a new school of'new study of textual criticism', which was significant in history study in China.Chenyinke is one of the representations of the 'school of the new study of textual criticism'. His study covers a vast range, including history of middle ages, history of religion, history of Mongolia, the study of Dunhuang and many others. He has made some creative achievements in his research field, but he is not a profile writer. His publications mainly include On the formation ofSui and Tang dynasty's system, On tlie political history of Tang dynasty and some essays which were collected in Assaysin Jinmingguan :book 1, book 2, Assays on poems of Yuan and Bai's , Assays in Hanluitang and other colleted works. During the rest of his life , he wrote the Separate History of Luirmhi, which can be considered a masterpiece of his approach known as 'inter-proving of poetry and history', meanwhile a summary of his life-long research on academic approaches.Generally speaking, all works by Chen are about textual research and his approaches in making such research work are completely of a traditional Chinese kind. However , his works finds difference in the aspect of methods of textual research . Basing on textual research on historical facts, he puts emphasis in history understanding and the exploration of the developing laws of history. Why Chenyinke can master such kind of method? The reasons are believed to lie in these two aspects: one is he has succeeded the traditional Chinese ways in textual research . The traditional way , at the beginning ,stresses exegetical studies and exists in notes to classics and historical records . Till Song Dynasty, scholars developed this traditional method .They not only made textual research on the historical facts, but paid much attention on laws of history. The study of textual research reached its peak during Qianlong,and Jiaqing Period in Qing Dynasty . It has formed a whole set of system in textual research . But most scholars in this period deviated reality. They just did textual research for the sake of textual research. In succeeding the good points or the scholars in Qian, Jia Period, Chenyinke persists in seeking truth from the facts and being serious and accurate in doing research work. Meanwhile, he absorbed the working style of the scholars in Song Dynasty and aimed his work at exploring historical laws; the other reason is connected with the influence of the western academic thought imposed upon him. Chen spent a long period studying abroad. He was greatly influenced by the western the school of historical language testifying and thought highly of grasping languages as instrument in making research work, He learned and grasped tens and odds of foreign languages...